Pickett has rattled off 14 wins in 18 fights. The 35-year-old
American Top Team representative last appeared at UFC Fight
Night “Gustafsson vs. Manuwa” in March, when he captured a
unanimous verdict over Neil Seery at
the O2 Arena in London. A well-rounded martial artist who has
engaged in his share of firefights, Pickett has drawn “Fight of the
Night” bonuses in four of his seven UFC appearances. The former
Cage Rage and Ultimate Challenge MMA champion was also the first
man to defeat Johnson, having done so while the two were competing
as bantamweights under the
World Extreme Cagefighting banner.

McCall was once champion of the Tachi
Palace Fights promotion, where victories against Jussier da
Silva, Dustin
Ortiz and Darrell
Montague made him one of MMA’s most-talked-about flyweights.
The 30-year-old
Team Oyama export has not fought since UFC 163 in August, when
he posted his first win inside the Octagon and cruised past
Iliarde
Santos to halt a two-fight losing streak. Like Pickett, “Uncle
Creepy” has past history with Johnson; the two fought to a
controversial draw at UFC on FX 2 in March 2012 before “Mighty
Mouse” walked away from their UFC on FX 3 rematch with a unanimous
decision three months later.

With the high-stakes Pickett-McCall showdown in a featured slot,
here is what to watch for at UFC Fight Night “McGregor vs.
Brandao,” as the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to
Ireland’s capital city for the first time in more than five
years:

‘NOTORIOUS’ HYPE

Few men have entered the UFC to such great expectations, and
Conor
McGregor has thus far lived up to them.

The former two-division
Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder will return
from close to a year-long layoff when he squares off with “The
Ultimate Fighter” Season 14 winner Diego
Brandao in their UFC Fight Night headliner. McGregor underwent
surgery for an ACL tear following his unanimous decision victory
over Max
Holloway in August and has not competed since. Blessed with
skilled hands and a mean streak, the 26-year-old charismatic
Irishman has finished nine opponents during his current run of 10
straight wins. McGregor sports four-, 16-, 67-, 82- and 93-second
stoppages on his resume.

A replacement for the injured Cole Miller,
Brandao has proven inconsistent throughout his career, mixing the
sublime with the subpar. The 27-year-old
Jackson-Wink MMA standout finds himself on the rebound
following a knockout loss to Dustin
Poirier at UFC 168 in December. Conditioning has been an issue
for Brandao in the past, and McGregor appears to possess the
weaponry necessary to test him in that arena. According to
FightMetric data, he lands an average of 4.59 strikes per minute --
a figure that would rank third among active UFC featherweights if
he had enough bouts under his belt to qualify.

GUNNING FOR GUNNAR

The unbeaten Icelandic star will put his 12-fight winning streak on
the line when he tests his mettle against Zak
Cummings in the co-main event. A Renzo Gracie
disciple, Nelson has turned away DaMarques
Johnson, Jorge
Santiago and Omari
Akhmedov in three Octagon appearances, scoring a pair of
submissions in the process. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with a
karate base, the 25-year-old has delivered 11 of his 12 victories
by knockout, technical knockout or submission, 10 of them inside
one round.

In Cummings, Nelson faces a veteran on the rise. A graduate of “The
Ultimate Fighter” Season 17, he has quietly put together four
straight wins. Cummings, who replaces the injured Ryan
LaFlare, last appeared at UFC Fight Night “Brown vs. Silva” in
May, when he handed
Nova Uniao’s Yan Cabral
his first career defeat, weathering an early submission threat to
pick apart the Brazilian in close quarters before neutralizing him
on the mat. He has been finished only once -- by a Tim Kennedy
north-south choke -- in 20 professional bouts.

PRETTY FLY

The former Championship Fighting Alliance titleholder will try to
bounce back from his first defeat in nearly two years when he
clashes with SBG Ireland’s Patrick
Holohan in an under-the-radar bout at 125 pounds. Sampo carried
a five-fight winning streak into UFC 170 in February, only to
squander the momentum in a unanimous decision loss to former
Bellator
MMA champion Zach
Makovsky. Can “The Gremlin” rediscover the formula that had him
on the cusp of contention?

Holohan, 26, cut his teeth on the Cage Contender and Chaos Fighting
Championships circuits but has yet to encounter someone of Sampo’s
pedigree. He has finished his last three opponents, two of them by
choke-induced submission. A February 2011 draw with Neil
McGuigan, which was later avenged, remains the lone blemish on
Holohan’s otherwise pristine resume.

REALITY TREK

Cathal
Pendred and Mike King were
Team Penn stablemates on Season 19 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” The
situation, as they say, has changed.

Pendred and King will face each other in an undercard middleweight
scrap, perhaps with a seat on the UFC roster at stake. A former
Cage Warriors champion, Pendred is 7-0-1 in his last eight outings,
including wins over Nicholas
Musoke, David
Bielkheden and Che Mills.
Pendred reached the semifinals on “The Ultimate Fighter” before
being eliminated by eventual Season 19 winner Eddie
Gordon.

King has finished each of his first five opponents since turning
pro. The 30-year-old last fought at a Championship Fighting
Alliance event in January, when he needed a little more than two
minutes to punch Billy
Garris into submission. Like Pendred, he was ousted by Gordon
on “The Ultimate Fighter.”